FR Doc E6-5332
[Federal Register: April 11, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 69)]
[Notices]
[Page 18294-18298]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr11ap06-56]
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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Office of Postsecondary Education; Overview Information; Fund for
the Improvement of Postsecondary Education--Special Focus Competition:
EU-U.S. Atlantis Program; Notice Inviting Applications for New Awards
for Fiscal Year (FY) 2006
Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number: 84.116J.
Dates: Applications Available: April 11, 2006.
Deadline for Transmittal of Applications: July 7, 2006.
Deadline for Intergovernmental Review: September 7, 2006.
Eligible Applicants: Institutions of higher education (IHEs) or
combinations of IHEs and other public and private nonprofit
institutions and agencies.
Estimated Available Funds: $500,000.
Estimated Range of Awards: $50,000-$150,000 for the first year;
$200,000-
[[Page 18295]]
$600,000 for the four-year duration of the grant.
Estimated Average Size of Awards: $100,000 for the first year;
$400,000 for the four-year duration of the grant.
Maximum Award: $696,000 for four years. The Assistant Secretary for
Postsecondary Education may change the maximum amount through a notice
published in the Federal Register.
Estimated Number of Awards: 5.
Note: The Department is not bound by any estimates in this
notice.
Project Period: Up to 48 months.
Full Text of Announcement
I. Funding Opportunity Description
Purpose of Program: The purpose of this program is to provide
grants or enter into cooperative agreements with eligible applicants to
improve postsecondary education opportunities by developing and
implementing undergraduate joint or dual degree programs. The EU-U.S.
Atlantis program is a revision of the European Union-United States
Cooperation Program in Higher Education and Vocational Education and
Training.
Priority: Under this competition, we are particularly interested in
applications that address the following priority.
Invitational Priority: For FY 2006 this priority is an invitational
priority. Under 34 CFR 75.105(c)(1), we do not give an application that
meets this invitational priority a competitive or absolute preference
over other applications.
This priority is designed to support the formation of educational
consortia of American and European institutions to support cooperation
in the coordination of curricula, the exchange of students, and the
opening of educational opportunities between the United States and the
European Union. This priority relates to the purpose of the program to
develop and implement undergraduate joint or dual degree programs.
This invitational priority is established in cooperation with the
European Union. These awards support only the participation of U.S.
institutions and students in these consortia. European Union
institutions participating in any consortium proposal responding to the
invitational priority may apply, respectively, to the Directorate-
General for Education and Culture (DG EAC), European Commission for
funding under a separate but parallel EU competition.
Program Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1138-1138d.
Applicable Regulations: The Education Department General
Administrative Regulations (EDGAR) in 34 CFR parts 74, 75, 77, 79, 80,
82, 84, 85, 86, 97, 98, and 99.
II. Award Information
Type of Award: Discretionary grants.
Estimated Available Funds: $500,000.
Estimated Range of Awards: $50,000 to $150,000 for the first year;
$200,000-$600,000 for the four-year duration of the grant.
Estimated Average Size of Awards: $100,000 for the first year;
$400,000 for the four-year duration of the grant.
Maximum Award: $696,000 for four years. The Assistant Secretary for
Postsecondary Education may change the maximum amount through a notice
published in the Federal Register.
Estimated Number of Awards: 5.
Note: The Department is not bound by any estimates in this
notice.
Project Period: Up to 48 months.
III. Eligibility Information
1. Eligible Applicants: IHEs or combinations of IHEs and other
public and private nonprofit institutions and agencies.
2. Cost Sharing or Matching: Although this program does not require
cost sharing or matching for eligibility, it is expected that U.S
applicants will provide an institutional financial commitment to the
project.
IV. Application and Submission Information
1. Address to Request Application Package: Frank Frankfort, Fund
for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, EU-U.S. Atlantis
Program, 1990 K Street, NW., room 6152, Washington, DC 20006-8544.
Telephone: (202) 502-7513.
If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), you may
call the Federal Relay Service (FRS) at 1-800-877-8339. Individuals
with disabilities may contact the Education Publications Center (ED
Pubs), P.O. Box 1398, Jessup, MD 20794-1398. Telephone (toll free): 1-
877-433-7827. FAX: (301) 470-1244. If you use a telecommunications
device for the deaf (TDD), you may call (toll free): 1-877-576-7734.
You may also contact ED Pubs at its Web site:
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/edpubs.html
or you may contact ED Pubs at its e-mail address: edpubs@inet.ed.gov.
If you request an application from ED Pubs, be sure to identify
this competition as follows: CFDA number 84.116J.
Individuals with disabilities may obtain a copy of the application
package in an alternative format (e.g., Braille, large print,
audiotape, of computer diskette) by contacting the program contact
person listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT in section VII of
this notice.
2. Content and Form of Application Submission: Requirements
concerning the content of an application, together with the forms you
must submit, are in the application package and instructions for this
competition.
Page Limit: The application narrative (Part III of the application)
is where you, the applicant, address the selection criteria that
reviewers use to evaluate your application. You must limit the section
of the narrative that addresses the selection criteria to the
equivalent of no more than twenty (20) pages, using the following
standards:
A ``page'' is 8.5 x 11'', one side only, with 1'' margins
at the top, bottom, and both sides. Page numbers and a document
identifier may be within the 1'' margin.
Double space (no more than three lines per vertical inch)
all text in the application narrative, except titles, headings,
footnotes, quotations, references, and captions, and all text in
charts, tables, figures, and graphs.
Use one of the following fonts: Times New Roman, Courier,
Courier New, or Arial. Applications submitted in any other font
(including Times Roman and Arial Narrow) will be rejected.
Use not less than 12-point font.
The page limit applies only to the project narrative and does not
include Part I, the cover sheet; Part II, the budget section, including
an optional budget narrative; Part IV, the assurances and
certifications; the table of contents or any of the appended materials
such as the bibliography, or the letters of support. We strongly
recommend that you limit the resumes to one page. However, you must
include all of the application narrative in Part III.
We will reject your application if--
You apply these standards and exceed the page limit or
You apply other standards and exceed the equivalent of the
page limit.
3. Submission Dates and Times:
Applications Available: April 11, 2006.
Deadline for Transmittal of Applications: July 7, 2006.
Applications for grants under this program must be submitted
electronically using the Grants.gov Apply site (Grants.gov). For
information (including dates and times) about how to submit your
application
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electronically or by mail or hand delivery if you qualify for an
exception to the electronic submission requirement, please refer to
section IV. 6. Other Submission Requirements in this notice.
We do not consider an application that does not comply with the
deadline requirements.
Deadline for Intergovernmental Review: September 7, 2006.
4. Intergovernmental Review: This program is subject to Executive
Order 12372 and the regulations in 34 CFR part 79. Information about
Intergovernmental Review of Federal Programs under Executive Order
12372 is in the application package for this program.
5. Funding Restrictions: We reference regulations outlining funding
restrictions in the Applicable Regulations section of this notice.
6. Other Submission Requirements: Applications for grants under
this program must be submitted electronically unless you qualify for an
exception to this requirement in accordance with the instructions in
this section.
a. Electronic Submission of Applications. Applications for grants
under the EU-U.S. Atlantis Program--CFDA Number 84.116J must be
submitted electronically using the Grants.gov site at:
http://www.grants.gov.
Through this site, you will be able to download a copy
of the application package, complete it offline, and then upload and
submit your application. You may not e-mail an electronic copy of a
grant application to us.
We will reject your application if you submit it in paper format
unless, as described elsewhere in this section, you qualify for one of
the exceptions to the electronic submission requirement and submit, no
later than two weeks before the application deadline date, a written
statement to the Department that you qualify for one of these
exceptions. Further information regarding calculation of the date that
is two weeks before the application deadline date is provided later in
this section under Exception to Electronic Submission Requirement.
You may access the electronic grant application for the EU-U.S.
Atlantis Program at: http://www.grants.gov.
You must search for the
downloadable application package for this program by the CFDA number
84.116J. Do not include the CFDA number's alpha suffix in your search.
Please note the following:
When you enter the Grants.gov site, you will find
information about submitting an application electronically through the
site, as well as the hours of operation.
Applications received by Grants.gov are time and date
stamped. Your application must be fully uploaded and submitted, and
must be date/time stamped by the Grants.gov system no later than 4:30
p.m., Washington, DC time, on the application deadline date. Except as
otherwise noted in this section, we will not consider your application
if it is date/time stamped by the Grants.gov system later than 4:30
p.m., Washington, DC time, on the application deadline date. When we
retrieve your application from Grants.gov, we will notify you if we are
rejecting your application because it was date/time stamped by the
Grants.gov system after 4:30 p.m., Washington, DC time, on the
application deadline date.
The amount of time it can take to upload an application
will vary depending on a variety of factors including the size of the
application and the speed of your Internet connection. Therefore, we
strongly recommend that you do not wait until the application deadline
date to begin the submission process through Grants.gov.
You should review and follow the Education Submission
Procedures for submitting an application through Grants.gov that are
included in the application package for this competition to ensure that
you submit your application in a timely manner to the Grants.gov
system. You can also find the Education Submission Procedures
pertaining to Grants.gov at http://e-grants.ed.gov/help/GrantsgovSubmissionProcedures.pdf.
To submit your application via Grants.gov, you must
complete all of the steps in the Grants.gov registration process
(see
http://www.Grants.gov/GetStarted).
These steps include (1) registering
your organization, (2) registering yourself as an Authorized
Organization Representative (AOR), and (3) getting authorized as an AOR
by your organization. Details on these steps are outlined in the
Grants.gov 3-Step Registration Guide (see http://www.grants.gov/assets/GrantsgovCoBrandBrochure8X11.pdf).
You also must provide on your application the same D-U-N-S Number used with this registration.
Please note that the registration process may take five or more business days
to complete, and you must have completed all registration steps to
allow you to successfully submit an application via Grants.gov.
You will not receive additional points because you submit
your application in electronic format, nor will we penalize you if you
qualify for an exception to the electronic submission requirement, as
described elsewhere in this section, and submit your application in
paper format.
You must submit all documents electronically, including
all information typically included on the Application for Federal
Education Assistance (SF 424), Budget Information--Non-Construction
Programs (ED 524), and all necessary assurances and certifications. You
must attach any narrative sections of your application as files in a
.DOC (document), .RTF (rich text), or .PDF (Portable Document) format.
If you upload a file type other than the three file types specified
above or submit a password protected file, we will not review that
material.
Your electronic application must comply with any page
limit requirements described in this notice.
After you electronically submit your application, you will
receive an automatic acknowledgement from Grants.gov that contains a
Grants.gov tracking number. The Department will retrieve your
application from Grants.gov and send you a second confirmation by e-
mail that will include a PR/Award number (an ED-specified identifying
number unique to your application).
We may request that you provide us original signatures on
forms at a later date.
Application Deadline Date Extension in Case of Technical Issues
with the Grants.gov System: If you are prevented from electronically
submitting your application on the application deadline date because of
technical problems with the Grants.gov system, we will grant you an
extension until 4:30 p.m., Washington, DC time, the following business
day to enable you to transmit your application electronically, or by
hand delivery. You also may mail your application by following the
mailing instructions as described elsewhere in this notice. If you
submit an application after 4:30 p.m., Washington, DC time, on the
deadline date, please contact the person listed elsewhere in this
notice under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT, and provide an
explanation of the technical problem you experienced with Grants.gov,
along with the Grants.gov Support Desk Case Number (if available). We
will accept your application if we can confirm that a technical problem
occurred with the Grants.gov system and that the problem affected your
ability to submit your application by 4:30 p.m., Washington, DC time,
on the application deadline date. The Department will contact you
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after a determination is made on whether your application will be
accepted.
Note: Extensions referred to in this section apply only to the
unavailability of or technical problems with the Grants.gov system.
We will not grant you an extension if you failed to fully register
to submit your application to Grants.gov before the deadline date
and time or if the technical problem you experienced is unrelated to
the Grants.gov system.
Exception to Electronic Submission Requirement: You qualify for an
exception to the electronic submission requirement, and may submit your
application in paper format, if you are unable to submit an application
through the Grants.gov system because--
You do not have access to the Internet; or
You do not have the capacity to upload large documents to
the Grants.gov system; and
No later than two weeks before the application deadline
date (14 calendar days or, if the fourteenth calendar day before the
application deadline date falls on a federal holiday, the next business
day following the federal holiday), you mail or fax a written statement
to the Department, explaining which of the two grounds for an exception
prevent you from using the Internet to submit your application. If you
mail your written statement to the Department, it must be postmarked no
later than two weeks before the application deadline date. If you fax
your written statement to the Department, we must receive the faxed
statement no later than two weeks before the application deadline date.
Address and mail or fax your statement to: Frank Frankfort, Fund
for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, EU-U.S. Atlantis
Program, 1990 K Street, NW., room 6152, Washington, DC 20006-8544. FAX:
(202) 502-7877. Your paper application must be submitted in accordance
with the mail or hand delivery instructions described in this notice.
b. Submission of Paper Applications by Mail.
If you qualify for an exception to the electronic submission
requirement, you may mail (through the U.S. Postal Service or a
commercial carrier) your application to the Department. You must mail
the original and two copies of your application, on or before the
application deadline date, to the Department at the applicable
following address:
By mail through the U.S. Postal Service: U.S. Department of
Education, Application Control Center, Attention: (CFDA Number
84.116J), 400 Maryland Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20202-4260;
or By mail through a commercial carrier:
U.S. Department of Education, Application Control Center--Stop
4260, Attention: (CFDA Number 84.116J), 7100 Old Landover Road,
Landover, MD 20785-1506.
Regardless of which address you use, you must show proof of mailing
consisting of one of the following:
(1) A legibly dated U.S. Postal Service postmark,
(2) A legible mail receipt with the date of mailing stamped by the
U.S. Postal Service,
(3) A dated shipping label, invoice, or receipt from a commercial
carrier, or
(4) Any other proof of mailing acceptable to the Secretary of the
U.S. Department of Education.
If you mail your application through the U.S. Postal Service, we do
not accept either of the following as proof of mailing:
(1) A private metered postmark, or
(2) A mail receipt that is not dated by the U.S. Postal Service.
If your application is postmarked after the application deadline
date, we will not consider your application.
Note: The U.S. Postal Service does not uniformly provide a dated
postmark. Before relying on this method, you should check with your
local post office.
c. Submission of Paper Applications by Hand Delivery.
If you qualify for an exception to the electronic submission
requirement, you (or a courier service) may deliver your paper
application to the Department by hand. You must deliver the original
and two copies of your application by hand, on or before the
application deadline date, to the Department at the following address:
U.S. Department of Education, Application Control Center, Attention:
(CFDA Number 84.116J), 550 12th Street, SW., Room 7041, Potomac Center
Plaza, Washington, DC 20202-4260.
The Application Control Center accepts hand deliveries daily
between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Washington, DC time, except Saturdays,
Sundays and Federal holidays.
Note for Mail or Hand Delivery of Paper Applications: If you mail
or hand deliver your application to the Department:
(1) You must indicate on the envelope and--if not provided by the
Department--in Item 4 of the Application for Federal Education
Assistance (SF 424) the CFDA number--and suffix letter, if any--of the
competition under which you are submitting your application.
(2) The Application Control Center will mail a grant application
receipt acknowledgment to you. If you do not receive the grant
application receipt acknowledgment within 15 business days from the
application deadline date, you should call the U.S. Department of
Education Application Control Center at (202) 245-6288.
V. Application Review Information
Selection Criteria: The selection criteria for this competition are
from 34 CFR 75.210 of EDGAR and are listed in the application package.
VI. Award Administration Information
1. Award Notices: If your application is successful, we notify your
U.S. Representative and U.S. Senators and send you a Grant Award
Notification (GAN). We may also notify you informally.
If your application is not evaluated or not selected for funding,
we notify you.
2. Administrative and National Policy Requirements: We identify
administrative and national policy requirements in the application
package and reference these and other requirements in the Applicable
Regulations section of this notice.
We reference the regulations outlining the terms and conditions of
an award in the Applicable Regulations section of this notice and
include these and other specific conditions in the GAN. The GAN also
incorporates your approved application as part of your binding
commitments under the grant.
3. Reporting: At the end of your project period, you must submit a
final performance report, including financial information, as directed
by the Secretary. If you receive a multi-year award, you must submit an
annual performance report that provides the most current performance
and financial expenditure information as specified by the Secretary in
34 CFR 75.118.
4. Performance Measures: The success of this competition depends
upon (1) the percentage of students pursuing a joint or dual degree who
persist from one academic year to the next (persistence); and (2) the
percentage of students who graduate within the project's stated time
for completing a joint or dual degree (completion). These two
performance measures constitute the Fund for the Improvement of
Postsecondary Education's (FIPSE) indicators of the success of the
program. If funded, you will be asked to collect and report data from
your project on steps taken toward achieving these goals. Consequently,
applicants are advised to include these two outcomes in conceptualizing
the design,
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implementation, and evaluation of their proposed projects. Persistence
and completion rates are important outcomes that ensure the ultimate
success of international consortia funded through this program.
VII. Agency Contact
For Further Information Contact: Frank Frankfort, Fund for the
Improvement of Postsecondary Education, EU-U.S. Atlantis Program, 1990
K Street, NW., room 6152, Washington, DC 20006-8544. Telephone: (202)
502-7513.
If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), you may
call the Federal Relay Service (FRS) at 1-800-877-8339.
Individuals with disabilities may obtain this document in an
alternative format (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, or computer
diskette) on request to the program contact person listed in this
section.
VIII. Other Information
Electronic Access to This Document: You may view this document, as
well as all other documents of this Department published in the Federal
Register, in text or Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) on the
Internet at the following site:
http://www.ed.gov/news/fedregister.
To use PDF you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available
free at this site. If you have questions about using PDF, call the U.S.
Government Printing Office (GPO), toll free, at 1-888-293-6498; or in
the Washington, DC, area at (202) 512-1530.
Note: The official version of this document is the document
published in the Federal Register. Free Internet access to the
official edition of the Federal Register and the Code of Federal
Regulations is available on GPO Access at: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/nara/index.html.
Dated: April 6, 2006.
Sally L. Stroup,
Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education.
[FR Doc. E6-5332 Filed 4-10-06; 8:45 am]
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